


Water Under the Bridge

by violetstorm



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, Forgiveness, Light Angst, M/M, Relationship Issues, not really a break up / make up fic but close enough, zaveid gives good relationship advice for once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-28 13:20:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13904853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violetstorm/pseuds/violetstorm
Summary: It's been three days since Sorey and Mikleo started ignoring each other.





	Water Under the Bridge

_ Buzz. _

_ Buzz. _

“Five more minutes…”

_ Buzz. _

“It’s too early in the morning for this.”

Sorey blindly reached out from below his warm covers into the cool air, searching for his damned phone. His fingers brushed against something hard and with a clatter, his phone fell to the ground, still buzzing and well out of reach. With a groan, Sorey pulled his covers off and picked up his phone. Then he stared at it, wondering if he was still half-asleep.

_ Saturday.  _

It wasn’t a school day? Then why — oh. 

An endless stream of notifications was shooting through his phone, with new ones popping up every couple of seconds or so, not an alarm as Sorey originally thought. They were all from Mikleo. Sorey looked from his bed to his phone. He could snuggle back under his warm covers, get some more sleep (Mikleo was the only one Sorey knew to wake up at the crack of dawn on weekends — really, why would anybody do that to themselves?) and avoid a certain conversation.

Or he could face his current, biggest fear. 

_ Buzz. _

Face his fear it was.

Sorey opened his text message conversation with Mikleo. Mikleo was in the middle of typing a message when he suddenly stopped. Read receipts. Oh boy. There were a lot of messages.

**_My One and Only_**  

_ ‘Hey, Sorey’ _

_ ‘Are you awake?’ _

_ ‘That’s a stupid question’ _

_ ‘You always sleep in on weekends’ _

_ ‘First of all, good morning. _

_ ‘(or afternoon to you, depending on when you read this)’ _

_ ‘or maybe not’ _

There was a two minute gap between this message and the next, Sorey remarked.

‘ _ look Sorey’ _

_ ‘I’m sorry’ _

_ ‘I shouldn’t have said that’ _

_ ‘i know it was stupid and wrong of me and i hurt you’ _

_ ‘I understand if you don’t want to talk to me’ _

_ ‘But please just hear me out’ _

_ ‘If you want to end things i understand but i dont want us tk hate each other’ _

_ ‘i’m being selfish right now aren’t i” _

_ ‘I’m sorry Sorey’ _

_ ‘I really am’ _

_ ‘believe me I am’ _

Sorey fell back onto his bed with a sigh, dragging his free hand down his face. Lords, it sucked to read those messages, but at the very least, he didn’t ignore them. He’s had his share of sending nerve-wracking messages only to have them left unread for hours afterwards, the anticipation for a response threatening to tear him apart.

Okay. He had another two options. Reply and begin the conversation he had been dreading for three days now or give a short response that would lead them nowhere. No, that was stupid and needlessly cruel. Even if Mikleo hadn’t said…  _ that _ , a short response would just make things worse. Sorey steeled himself, fingers hovering over the screen.

**Sorey**

_ ‘morning Mikleo’ _

_ ‘I’m awake’ _

_ ‘I left my phone on vibrate last night and your messages woke me up’ _

_ ‘I thought it was a school day’ _

The ‘read’ notification came immediately and Mikleo’s response not a millisecond later.

**_My One and Only_**  

_ ‘Did you read my messages?’ _

**Sorey**

_ ‘yeah’ _

_ ‘I read all of them’ _

It was far too early in the morning to be thinking this hard. The only acceptable time to wake up on a Saturday was at ten o’clock or later. He needed a coffee. A  _coffee!_

Sorey deleted the message he was in the middle of typing — it wasn’t a terrible loss. Mikleo deserved better than some jumbled text on a screen.

**Sorey**

_ ‘meet me at the corner cafe by your house? I’ll be there in 20 min’ _

**_My One and Only_**  

_ ‘alright’ _

Sorey waited for the ‘don’t be late, sorey’ message, or anything Mikleo-like. Snark, a joke, a jab at Sorey. Nothing came. He must have been in a  _ really  _ bad state. That called for desperate measures, then. There was no way in hell Sorey would keep Mikleo waiting at a time like this. He opened a different text conversation.

**Sorey**

_ ‘hey Zaveid?’ _

* * *

 

Ten minutes later, Sorey had washed up, gotten dressed and was currently on the way to the cafe he agreed to meet Mikleo at. The sky was a brilliant mesh of blues, yellows and pinks, the moon still trying its best to fight off the coming sun. Sorey rolled down the window, the crisp breeze cutting into his skin. At least it was helping him stay awake.

“God- _ damn  _ it’s cold! Sorey, put the window back up, I’m freezing over here, man!”

With reluctance, Sorey shut the window. He turned to Zaveid with a wry grin. “Maybe if you put more clothes on, it wouldn’t be so bad.”

“Maybe if I had more time to get ready, I would have gotten dressed properly, yeah?” Zaveid was tapping a soundless tune on the steering wheel. He shot Sorey a spare glance, before turning his eyes back to the road.

“Right. Sorry about waking you up so early to drop me off.”

“Don’t sweat it! I’m always happy to help my boy with anything.” Zaveid removed one of his hands from the steering wheel and reached out, probably to ruffle Sorey’s hair. He shrunk back as far as he could from Zaveid’s outstretched hand. Zaveid gave up rather quickly. “ _ So,  _ if you don’t mind my asking, did you and Mikkey-boy make up already? Y’know, if you wanted to have a date, couldn’t you have waited until later?”

“Well…” Sorey was back to looking out the window. “Not exactly. We didn't resolve our fight. I actually asked Mikleo to meet me in the cafe today so we could talk about… y’know.”

“You don’t have to tell me exactly what he said if you don’t want to. I won’t pry but  _ man,  _ Mikleo can be harsh sometimes.”

“I guess.” Sorey sighed. “I know he didn’t mean it. He told me that this morning and he was apologizing over and over again.”

“But it still hurts.”

“A little bit.” Sorey admitted. “But we have to talk. I don’t think we’ve ever ignored each other for this long in our entire lives.”

“You’re smart, Sorey. It’s best to chat things out. Otherwise, everything’ll go downhill.”

“...But what do I say? I’ve never done anything like this before. What should I tell him?”

“Simple.” Zaveid shrugged. “Tell him how you feel. Mikkey-boy definitely feels like shit over what he’s done, but you’re feeling bad too. You’ve gotta let him know that.”

“I think he knows it already.”

“Hearing it in person is a different matter entirely.”

“You’re right. It’s just that… we’ve never fought like this before. I’m worried that there’ll be more fights like this in the future.” Sorey was barely audible over the sound of the engine. Nonetheless, Zaveid clung to every word. “I don’t want things to end but if this is how things will be from now on, then—”

“I’m gonna stop ya right there, kid. That line of thinking will get you nowhere. Haven’t you guys done your research? It’s normal to have arguments like this. The both of you are  _ young,  _ you’re teenagers, you’re bound to make some mistakes. All you gotta do it learn from them and work together.”

“But—”

“Look, Sorey.” Zaveid sighed. “You need to trust me on this. I’ve dealt with shit like this in the past before.”

“Was it with…”

“Theodora? Yeah.” Zaveid said. His eyes were glued on the road and his mouth hardened into a thin line, the same way it always did whenever somebody brought up Theodora. “I don’t know how we managed to make things work, but we did. It wasn’t easy. We had our fair share of arguments. But you know what we did? We both talked about it. Didn’t hide anything from each other, no passive-aggressiveness, none of that. If one of us felt sad or hurt because of the other one, we’d say it.”

“What did you say?”

“Normal things. You said this, I felt that because of it. Stuff like that. Then we’d forgive each other, so long as the person agreed to try and work on not saying or doing whatever hurt the other person. It’s tough stuff but,” Zaveid sounded almost wistful. “It’s all worth it in the end.”

The car slowed to a halt in front of a red light. The cafe was just around the corner. Sorey checked his watch. Not bad. Not bad at all. “I think I get what you mean. Thanks, Zaveid. I.. feel a lot better now.”

“Don’t mention it, kid.” The light turned green and Zaveid pressed harder on the gas pedal than what was doubtlessly unnecessary. “Let’s go drop you off to your ‘one and only.’”

Zaveid pulled up right outside the cafe. It was nearly empty. A couple of patrons sat inside and barely, Sorey could see the top of Mikleo’s head sitting at a booth. The confidence Sorey got from Zaveid’s pep talk was quickly beginning to disintegrate. Zaveid clapped Sorey on the shoulder.

“What’re you waiting for? C’mon! You’ll be fine. Once you guys talk it out, everything’ll be alright.”

“I’m going, I’m going!” Sorey opened the car door and stepped outside. “Thanks for dropping me off Zaveid. And for the advice.”

“Always a pleasure. If things go wrong, you know who to text.” Zaveid winked.

A tiny tinkle of a bell announced Sorey’s entry to the cafe as the sound of an engine revving up resounded from behind him, Zaveid’s car driving off. Mikleo, who must have been staring at his phone, immediately locked eyes with Sorey. He stood up from the table, beckoning Sorey over.

There were two cups of steaming coffee already on the table when Sorey came. “Who’s this for?”

“You.” Mikleo said. “I thought I’d order us some drinks before you got here so you wouldn’t have to wait.”

“Oh. Thanks. How much was it?” Sorey picked up the cup. It was pleasantly warm to the touch. It looked like being five minutes late wasn’t so bad after all.

“Don’t worry; you don’t have to pay me back.” Mikleo picked up his own cup. “Er — shall we go outside? The park isn’t too far from here.”

“Oh. Sure.” Good thing it warmed up outside. The barista at the counter waved at them as they left. Walking outside to avoid potential eavesdroppers? Sorey grit his teeth.  _ Just remember what Zaveid said. Be honest and forgiving. _

“Sorey, I—”

“Mikleo, listen—”

They both stopped. “You first.” Mikleo offered.

_ You’re stalling, Mikleo.  _ “I’m, uh, glad you came to meet me here on such a short notice.” Sorey took a sip of his coffee. Perfectly sweet, as expected. Mikleo never forgot Sorey’s order, but on a day like this, he wouldn’t have been surprised to find nothing but bitter black coffee inside.

“I’d been wanting to talk anyway.”

Oh-kay, never mind. Now Mikleo was going too quickly for Sorey’s likes. “Yeah. About that…”

“I’m sorry.” Mikleo said. Not typed, said. Out-loud. His voice sounded dangerously close to cracking. “I wasn’t thinking when I said that to you. That’s no excuse for what I’ve done, but I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean any of it.” Mikleo focused his attention on his feet. “I only said that because… because I wanted to — I let my anger control me and I — I just wanted to make you feel as bad as I possibly could. I’m so sorry, Sorey.”

There was the apology again. What did Zaveid tell him to do? Right, talk about his feelings. “I’m not gonna lie, that did hurt… a lot.” Sorey tried to laugh it off. Needless to say, he failed miserably. “It wasn’t something I expected out of you, that’s for sure. I knew back then that you didn’t mean it but I still stormed off because I needed some time to cool off.”

“I think we both needed time to cool off after that.”

They found themselves entering a park, so vividly green in the growing sunlight. With the birds singing and the way they were walking together, holding their cups, it really did seem like a date.

“Sorey. I’m sorry. I know I said this to you before, but—”

“You don’t need to keep apologizing. You’ve already apologized to me earlier.”

“But I want to! I need to! You deserve to hear it. I’m sorry, Sorey. I made you feel like shit and I’ll— I want to make it up to you. Please.” Mikleo gazed at Sorey with pleading eyes. “I want to have another chance with you. But—” He stared at his feet again. “—If you don’t want to forgive me, I understand. I won’t pester you to forgive me if you truly don’t want to.”

“Mikleo, I never said I’d do anything like that! You’re jumping to conclusions.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want to end things off like this. Or at all, actually. Let me rephrase that: I don’t want to ends things off with you, Mikleo. Not after something small like this.”

“Small? Sorey, you—”

“It’s just an argument. Besides, you said you knew what you did was wrong, right? I know you won’t do anything like that again. You’ve never hurt me on purpose before.” Sorey said. Mikleo looked up and Sorey brought a hand to his chin. “Well, except for that one time you punched me…”

Heat flared in Mikleo’s cheeks. “In my defense, you deserved it! You  _ humiliated  _ me in front of  _ everyone!  _ Edna wouldn’t stop teasing me about it for  _ months!” _

“I didn’t humiliate you, I was being sweet! What’s wrong about being somebody’s one and only?”

“Nothing! But did you  _ have  _ to call me that in front of everyone?”

“How else was I gonna break the news that we started dating?”

“Like a normal person would!”

“That’s too plain. Come on, Mikleo, admit it. You thought it was sweet, too.”

“Now because you said that, I am never going to admit it to you.”

“By saying that, doesn’t that mean that you’re already admitting it?”

“No.”

“I think it does.”

“It doesn’t.”

“It does!”

Sorey held Mikleo’s glare and lo and behold, it was Mikleo who looked away first. “Fine.” He mumbled, hand over his face. “Just a little. Ugh. Now that I said that, you’re going to let it go to your head. At  _ least  _ don’t say it in front of Rose or Edna or Zaveid. I don’t think I can handle any more blackmail from them.”

“Don’t worry! I wouldn’t dream of it.” Sorey laughed, brushing Mikleo’s hair away from his face. His cheeks were still a burning red. He leaned in close and, completely by instinct and completely without thinking, gave Mikleo a peck on the cheek. Mikleo squeaked, and leaned back, regarding Sorey with wide eyes and a completely red face.

“You… you kissed me.” He said, breathless.

“Yeah. We’re dating, aren’t we? Isn’t it alright if I do? Nobody’s watching.” Just in case, Sorey surveyed the park. Yup. Completely empty.

“I thought — I thought we were fighting.”

“You can fight and still love the other person.” Sorey said, giving another kiss to the top of Mikleo’s head. Three days? It’d been three days since he was able to do something like this. Laughing, spending time together, everything. Oh, how he missed it dearly. “Mikleo. Spending time with you makes me happy. Happier than anything else. I don’t want to let everything go to waste because of one bad night.”

“...Nor do I.” Mikleo said. “I promise, Sorey.” He grabbed at Sorey’s free hand with his own. “I’ll try not to — no, I  _ won’t  _ do anything like that again.”

“I know you won’t.” Sorey smiled.“I trust you.”

“Sorey… Thank you. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were too forgiving.” 

“You always did say I was too kind for my own good.”

“Thank you. Really. I’ll make it up to you somehow. No matter how much effort it takes.”

“There’s no need to go that far!”

“But I’d still like to do something for you.”

Sorey thought for a moment. “You paid for my drink earlier today. We’re even.”

“That’s not—”

Sorey cut Mikleo off, wrapping an arm around the smaller boy’s body and drawing him closer to his own. “You can pay me back by spending the rest of the day with me. Just you and me, hanging out. Alright?”

“As you wish.” Mikleo replied. He pressed his lips to Sorey’s, warm and familiar and completely forgiven. 

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, Mikleo. What did you say that was so terrible? At least you understand what you did and want to better yourself and good thing Sorey decided to forgive you.
> 
> I wrote this in two hours and roughly edited it, so I apologize for any mistakes. I don't know what inspired this? I wanted to write a "break-up" aftermath fic without putting in the effort to write the actual break-up and this came out of it. Oops? I blame any and all weirdness on the fact that it is now 1 am. 
> 
> (Edit: I forgot to mention! In a lot of the fics I've read, it's Sorey that usually makes the mistake. This time, I wanted to turn the tables on dear Mikleo, oh my. Edit 2: I want to give some context: Sorey and Mikleo had an argument, Mikleo said something reprehensible and it took them three days of cooling down via ignoring each other before Mikleo summoned up the courage to apologize)
> 
> Thank you for reading ~♪


End file.
